Battle for Arab hearts, minds - and money

The media battle for the Middle East's hearts, minds and - wouldn't you just know it? - market share is hotting up. Germany's public broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, is preparing to beam 24 hours-a-day news programming in Arabic this autumn. France's proposed CNN-style channel is hoping for a year-end launch, along with a website in Arabic. Russia Today has similar plans. Then there's the American giant CNN carefully monitoring the development of its Arabic website to gauge whether to extend it into TV. Meanwhile, Britain's BBC World Service is also planning an autumn debut of an Arabic news broadcast, starting with 12 hours of daily programming and expanding to 24 hours. (Via Europe - International Herald Tribune)